Question

You have a client that comes to see you for psychology help. He is 31 years old and is having trouble with his 7 year old son who won't behave. The boy talks back and is defiant in school as well. He throws things and he yells at both his parents and his teacher.

Select either Classical or Operant Conditioning. Which one would work better in this case, why and what would you do? (1/2 - 1 page).

Answer 1

The better option is operant conditioning. The reason being it works on the basic principal of reinforcement and punishment. When we are trying to eliminate bad habit or want to teach some manners to kid, this technique is best. This will show him that his action has consequences and will teach him valuable lesson on discipline. So how we can implement is, the teacher and parents need to sit down and plan what punishment we should give and what rewards we should have for his behaviors. Like for example when he is refuses to obey teachers command, don’t let him go outside in recess, the parents and teachers can come with creative ways to teach him discipline at school. At home, when he throws things and yells tell him this is bad behavior and he will get punished for it, like no television or screen time for starters and then you can create punishment when he throws temper tantrums. This will help decrease his bad behaviors and you can simultaneously teach him good things and good behavior which will earn him rewards. The idea is to maintain balance, if you will go all punishment then it will affect the child, what you have to do is find a balance, like if he has earn two punishment then give him some chore and tell him he can earn good points if he do it right, this will teach him good behavior by eliminating the bad.